kas246
New member
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
Hi,
This is my first post here so I figured I'd give you a little bit of background on myself before I get to my question. I'm a mechanical engineer from Pittsburgh, PA who recently moved from a position in the automotive industry to working as part of a design team within the outdoor furniture industry. One of my first tasks here is to work with the designers on a piece of outdoor concrete furniture with integrated LEDs. The company I work for makes a range of lighted outdoor products, but this is the first in the concrete product line. Also, I noticed there is a low-voltage section of the forum, but my question is also code-related, so I hope this is in the correct place... please let me know if not.
My question surrounds the wiring method, and what is acceptable/desired. I had initially planned on casting in LFNC and running our wiring through that, but we are very limited on space, and I have some confusion regarding whether or not we are allowed to encase 90deg connectors in concrete (2017 NFPA 70 356.42). If I cannot encase a 90deg connector, that method won't work. Because of our lack of space, the question of casting a CL2 cable directly into the concrete has come up, but I have not found a CL2 cable specifically rated for concrete encasement, and I'm hesitant to go this route for a number of reasons. The third option would be to fabricate a complex metal enclosure that would meet our space requirements and include a "conduit" for the wiring, and the whole unit could be placed in the mold during the concrete pour. I really like this idea, primarily from a manufacturing standpoint, but I'm not sure if it's going to fly when it comes to the code.
My questions are somewhat general. Since I am new to this field and NFPA 70, is there any specific article that I should do more research on? Does anyone here have any sort of similar experience or insight into what is "commonly" done? Do any of these methods seem like a terrible idea on the face of it?
Also, the product will undergo ETL testing, and I do need to reach out to our contact at the testing lab to get their feedback, but figured I would introduce myself and bounce some ideas off of this forum first. Please excuse any ignorance here, I'm much more familiar with SAE Standards than the NEC!! But I'm willing to learn and looking forward to hearing your feedback. Thanks in advance!
-Kevin
This is my first post here so I figured I'd give you a little bit of background on myself before I get to my question. I'm a mechanical engineer from Pittsburgh, PA who recently moved from a position in the automotive industry to working as part of a design team within the outdoor furniture industry. One of my first tasks here is to work with the designers on a piece of outdoor concrete furniture with integrated LEDs. The company I work for makes a range of lighted outdoor products, but this is the first in the concrete product line. Also, I noticed there is a low-voltage section of the forum, but my question is also code-related, so I hope this is in the correct place... please let me know if not.
My question surrounds the wiring method, and what is acceptable/desired. I had initially planned on casting in LFNC and running our wiring through that, but we are very limited on space, and I have some confusion regarding whether or not we are allowed to encase 90deg connectors in concrete (2017 NFPA 70 356.42). If I cannot encase a 90deg connector, that method won't work. Because of our lack of space, the question of casting a CL2 cable directly into the concrete has come up, but I have not found a CL2 cable specifically rated for concrete encasement, and I'm hesitant to go this route for a number of reasons. The third option would be to fabricate a complex metal enclosure that would meet our space requirements and include a "conduit" for the wiring, and the whole unit could be placed in the mold during the concrete pour. I really like this idea, primarily from a manufacturing standpoint, but I'm not sure if it's going to fly when it comes to the code.
My questions are somewhat general. Since I am new to this field and NFPA 70, is there any specific article that I should do more research on? Does anyone here have any sort of similar experience or insight into what is "commonly" done? Do any of these methods seem like a terrible idea on the face of it?
Also, the product will undergo ETL testing, and I do need to reach out to our contact at the testing lab to get their feedback, but figured I would introduce myself and bounce some ideas off of this forum first. Please excuse any ignorance here, I'm much more familiar with SAE Standards than the NEC!! But I'm willing to learn and looking forward to hearing your feedback. Thanks in advance!
-Kevin
